Please visit our People page for an overview of the individuals whose biographies are collected on this page.
Faculty
Tim Leung, CFRM Director
EDUCATION
B.S., Operations Research, Cornell University
Ph.D., Operations Research & Financial Engineering, Princeton University
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Leung’s research areas are Financial Mathematics and Optimal Stochastic Control. He has worked on a variety of problems, such as derivatives pricing, algorithmic trading, credit risk, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and more. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and published in journals, such as Mathematical Finance, Quantitative Finance, Finance & Stochastics, SIAM Journals, etc. Professor Leung regularly supervises PhD, MS, and undergraduate research projects, and collaborates with academics, practitioners, and regulators. He is the Chair of the INFORMS Finance Section, and the Program Director of the SIAM Activity Group on Financial Mathematics & Engineering (SIAG FME)
Matt Lorig
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara
BIOGRAPHY
Matt’s research interests include probability theory, stochastic analysis, financial mathematics, and partial differential and integro-differential equations. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from University of California, Santa Barbara and has served as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University.
Kevin Lu
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Australian National University
BIOGRAPHY
Kevin’s research is in the area of stochastic processes, probability theory, and its applications to mathematical finance. Focusing on Lévy processes, he has worked on the subordination of Lévy processes to create time-change models of multivariate asset prices, and statistical estimation for multivariate Lévy-driven Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes.
Sasha Aravkin
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Mathematics (Optimization), University of Washington, 2010
M.S. in Statistics, University of Washington, 2010
B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Washington, 2004
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Aravkin works in large scale optimization, machine learning and data science. His interests include nons- mooth/nonconvex/stochastic/PDE constrained optimization, fast algorithms for machine learning, convex/variational analysis, robust statistics, signal processing, and 3D image reconstruction.
WEBSITE
Nathan Kutz
EDUCATION
B.S., Physics and Mathematics, University of Washington
Ph.D., Applied Mathematics, Northwestern University
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Kutz was awarded the B.S. in physics and mathematics from the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) in 1990 and the PhD in Applied Mathematics from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) in 1994. He joined the department in 1998 and became Chair in 2007. Professor Kutz is especially interested in a unified approach to applied mathematics which includes modeling, computation and analysis. His area of current interest concerns phenomena in the optical sciences: laser dynamics and modelocking in fiber lasers, soliton propagation and mode-coupling dynamics for optical fiber communications, and pattern formation and stability of optical structures in optical parametric oscillators. Mathematically, the analysis and computation of the above phenomena naturally fall within the context of the methods of contemporary dynamical systems, nonlinear wave propagation, perturbation and asymptotic methods, and bifurcation theory applied to the underlying nonlinear differential equations and partial differential equations.
Doug Martin
EDUCATION
B.S.E, EE/Physics, Princeton
M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Washington
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Princeton
BIOGRAPHY
Martin is Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics, former Director of the Computational Finance and Risk Management graduate degree program, Professor Emeritus of Statistics and Adjunct Professor of Finance, and former Chair of the Department of Statistics. Martin was a consultant in the Mathematics and Statistics Research Center at Bell Laboratories from 1973 to 1983. In 1987, he founded Statistical Sciences to commercialize the S language for data analysis and statistical modelling in the form of S-PLUS. Subsequently he was a co-founder and Chairman of FinAnalytica, Inc., developer of the Cognity portfolio construction and risk management system, and served as CEO from 2006 to 2008. Martin has authored numerous publications on time series and robust statistical methods, and is co-author of two books: Modern Portfolio Optimization (2005), and Robust Statistics: Theory and Methods (2006). His research is on applications of modern statistical methods in finance and investment.
Hong Qian
EDUCATION
B.A, Astrophysics, Peking University
Ph.D., Biochemistry, Washington School of Medicine
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Qian received his B.A. in Astrophysics from Peking University in China in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 1989. Subsequently, he worked as postdoctoral researcher at University of Oregon and Caltech on biophysical chemistry and mathematical biology. Before joining the University of Washington, he was an assistant professor of Biomathematics at UCLA School of Medicine. From 1992-1994, he was a fellow with the Program in Mathematics and Molecular Biology (PMMB), a NSF-funded multi-university consortium. Professor Qian’s main research interest is the mathematical approach to and physical understanding of biological systems, especially in terms of stochastic mathematics and nonequilibrium statistical physics. In recent years, he has been particularly interested in a nonlinear, stochastic, open system approach to cellular dynamics. Similar population dynamic approach can be applied to other complex systems and processes, such as those in ecology, infection epidemics, and economics. He believes his recent work on the statistical thermodynamic laws of general Markov processes can have applications in ecomomic dynamics and theory of values. In his research on cellular biology, his recent interest is in isogenetic variations and possible pre-genetic biochemical origins of oncogenesis.
Ka-Kit Tung
EDUCATION
B.S., Engineering Science, California Institute of Technology
M.S., Aeronautics, California Institute of Technology
Ph.D., Applied Mathematics, Harvard University
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Tung’s current research is in time-series data analysis, in particular the analysis of past and present climate data to understand the factors that are responsible for the observed variation. Professor Tung received his baccalaureate and master’s degrees at the California Institute of Technology, both in 1972, in the field of Aeronautical Engineering. He earned his doctorate degree in Applied Mathematics at Harvard University in 1977. Professor Tung joined the Department in late 1988 and became Department Chair in August 1993, a position he held until July 2007. He teaches courses on Mathematical Modeling, Partial Differential Equations and Investment Science. His research on climate data analysis is supported by NSF and NASA. He is the Chief Editor of Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, and also serves as an Editor of Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems.
Brian Peterson
BIOGRAPHY
Brian Peterson has more than a decade of experience researching, designing, developing, and deploying production quantitative trading systems. Brian is a Managing Director at Hehmeyer Trading + Investments in Chicago where he leads the electronic market making and digital assets (cryptocurrency) teams. He has been the lead executive for quantitative trading in multiple Chicago proprietary trading firms where his personal assets have been at risk every day. Brian is co-author or maintainer of over 10 packages for using the R statistical language in finance, and acts as the organization administrator for R’s participation in the prestigious annual Google Summer of Code program. In addition, Brian has continued to research, publish, and teach, and has been part of the UW Applied Mathematics, Computational Finance and Risk Management program since 2013. Brian has deep experience delivering large, technically complex production systems utilizing the latest technologies and techniques, including advanced optimization, machine learning and artificial intelligence, low latency execution, and algorithm design, judged directly by their performance in live markets.
David Cariño
EDUCATION
B.S.E., Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, MIT; M.S., Electrical Engineering MIT
Ph.D. in Engineering Economic Systems, Stanford University
BIOGRAPHY
David Cariño is a research fellow at Russell Investments, where he conducts research on performance measurement and index methodologies and develops new index products. He has assisted numerous clients with multi-manager portfolio strategies and has served as director of investment strategy for Russell’s office in Sydney, Australia. David has published several influential articles on asset allocation and performance measurement since joining Russell in 1987. Most recently, he coauthored the book, Portfolio Performance Measurement and Benchmarking (McGraw-Hill, 2009), with Jon Christopherson and Wayne Ferson. He was the architect of the Russell-Yasuda Kasai model, an asset/liability management model using multi-stage stochastic programming, which received a 1993 Franz Edelman Award by The Institute of Management Sciences. His 1999 article “Combining Attribution Effects Over Time” received a Dietz Award by The Journal of Performance Measurement. He currently serves on the advisory board of that journal.
Garth Reistad
EDUCATION
B.S. with highest honors in Economics, Montana State University
M.A. in Economics, Columbia University
BIOGRAPHY
Garth Reistad is the Deputy Chief Investment Officer with over fifteen years’ experience with the investment program at the University of Washington. Prior to joining the University, he worked as an Analyst at Bank of America in San Francisco. Garth is a member of the Seattle Society of Financial Analysts and a CFA charter holder. He serves as a member of the Investment Committee for Seattle University.
Jay Henniger
EDUCATION
B.S., Physics and Mathematics, Gettysburg College
Ph.D., Applied Mathematics, Cornell University
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Henniger is the Head of Financial Modeling at OneWest Bank, a southern California bank with over 25 Billion in assets. He leads a team focused on fixed income portfolio valuation, interest rate risk management, and estimating and stress testing credit risk. From 2008-2011 Henniger was a Sr. Manger and Risk Model Specialist at JP Morgan Chase, coordinating credit risk economic capital modeling and providing independent review of Basel II regulatory capital models. Dr. Henniger has more than ten years of experience building and analyzing quantitative financial models with particular emphasis on models for assessing valuation and risk relating to bank assets and liabilities.
John McMurray
EDUCATION
B.S., Trinity University
M.B.A, University of Texas San Antonio
M.S., MIT
BIOGRAPHY
John McMurray is chief risk officer for Russell Investments leading the global risk management function. With decades of experience in large commercial and government-sponsored institutions, John’s background includes more than 10 years in chief risk or chief credit officer roles. His background spans multiple asset classes across multiple market cycles with consumer, commercial and counterparty market and credit exposures for securities, options, whole loans, derivatives, guarantees and insurance.
Keith Ferguson
EDUCATION
B.A., Princeton
M.B.A., University of Washington
BIOGRAPHY
Keith Ferguson is currently the Chief Investment Officer at the University of Washington in Seattle. Mr. Ferguson has over twenty years of experience in the investment business, primarily working as a portfolio manager and research analyst. Prior to his current role, Mr. Ferguson worked for Fidelity Investments in senior investment roles, including Chief Investment Officer for Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong.
Steven Murray
EDUCATION
B.A., Mathematics, Whitman College
M.S. and Ph.D., Operations Research, Stanford University
Charterholder, CFA Institute
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Murray is Director of Asset Allocation and Investment Solutions for Russell Investments where he is responsible for portfolio construction research as well as the development and maintenance of model portfolios. Model portfolio research informs the management of multi-asset, balanced portfolios and supports client service and sales activities across regional institutional and retail business units. Dr. Murray also serves on Russell’s endowment and foundation practice group. Murray joined Russell’s investment research and development group in 1992, when his initial responsibilities were as a team member and project technical manager of customized asset/liability management models. These models were developed for large financial institutions, including banks and insurance companies. Dr. Murray’s role included both developing theoretical algorithms and implementing large-scale stochastic programming models. Murray has led Russell’s strategic forecasting group as well as the asset/liability analysis group, and his recent Russell research commentaries include an update to “Endowments, Foundations and the Inflation Challenge”, “Are 5% Distributions an Achievable Hurdle for Foundations? Were They Ever?” and “Rebalancing and Enhanced Asset Allocation.” He is a member of the CFA Institute and the Seattle Society of Financial Analysts and INFORMS (formerly the Operations Research Society of America). Dr. Murray is a recipient of 1999, 2001 and 2008 Russell Team Excellence Awards and a 2004 Russell Leadership Award.
Karen Gray Beaudry
EDUCATION
B.A., History of Science, Harvard University
BIOGRAPHY
Karen brings more than 25 years of information technology industry experience to her role in CFRM. Karen has held positions as a Systems Engineer at IBM Corporation, Assistant VP & Manager, Technology Development at Security Pacific Bank, Director of Marketing at an Internet start-up and as an Implementation Consultant at a large, publicly-traded healthcare technology company. She studied the History of Science, minored in Biology and was co-captain of Women’s Track & Field, at Harvard University. Outside of Lewis Hall, Karen can be found playing tennis, learning to fly fish and enjoying the Seattle food scene.